Who needs real, live debates?

For David Richter and Kate Gibbs, bickering on Facebook is good enough.

The Republican candidates for the party’s nomination in CD-3 went at – and after – each other earlier this week in a series of Facebook exchanges. Call it the “new normal.”

Gibbs began the exchange – unwittingly perhaps – with a post charging Richter’s construction management firm, Hill International, with “fleecing taxpayers.”

Or as she put it:

“The facts are clear: Hill International routinely inflated costs and ran way over budget, forcing New Jersey taxpayers to pick up the tab. Their property taxes went up while Richter laughed all the way to the
bank.”

Surprisingly, one of the first to respond was Richter himself.

“Careful Kate,” he wrote. “The voters are paying attention and your lies only hurt you, not me.”

Before we continue with the exchange, here is some background Gibbs is bringing up school district construction projects Richter’s firm worked on about 15 years ago in Middletown and Millstone. The cost of the Millstone project, for example, jumped about $4 million because of cost overruns.

It’s not surprising that the Gibbs campaign is researching Richter’s background, but as a general overview, cost overruns are fairly common. Just ask any reporter who began his, or her, career covering
local towns and school districts.

There are any number of reasons why a project turns out to be more expensive than planned. Projects can take more than a year from start to finish and a lot can happen in between. There could be problems
with obtaining material, labor shortages and the need to comply with an array of sometimes unexpected government regulations.

In short, cost overruns in themselves are not signs of malfeasance or incompetence.

Further responding to Gibbs, Richter essentially made that point, adding that as a manager of a project, he doesn’t benefit when costs increase. He said that the added fees go to the builder.

“If you can’t win with the truth,” he said to Gibbs. “Maybe you just don’t deserve to win at all.”

Gibbs didn’t back down, asserting in a post that Richter’s “failure to manage the projects properly drove up costs.”

Gibbs also mentioned a Bergen Record article in which she said state transportation officials criticized Richter’s firm for its work and “inflated” prices.

Richter said Gibbs was wrong and that the criticism was aimed at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, not his firm.

Sarcastically referring to Richter having a “lot of Ivy League degrees,” Gibbs retorted that all this is pretty simple. She said the overall problem centered on the fees charged by Richter’s company.

“The more you talk, the deeper you get,” Gibbs said.”

To which, Richter reiterated, “As I said, just keep lying Kate. It only hurts you and helps me.”

Given the current pandemic and a five-week delay in the primary, it’s hard to figure how this one will turn out.

Gibbs has support from Burlington County Republicans, but Richter secured Ocean County backing in one of the last conventions held prior to the lockdown.

You figure Democratic Rep. Andy Kim had to be pretty amused hearing about – or perhaps reading – the exchanges between his would-be opponents.

But just to show that all civility has not been abandoned, both Gibbs and Richter ended their dialogue by wishing each other a “good night.”

How sweet.